The 1,275-seat Virginia Theater
can hardly contain Audrey II, the ever-growing plant that is at the heart of
this high-energy, high-camp, highly entertaining Broadway debut of a show that has been a staple of regional,
community and school theater companies ever since its off-Broadway debut
twenty years ago. It has a small but energetic cast, a great set design and,
of course, that ever growing plant. The real strength, however, is the tuneful, inventive and highly enjoyable score that Alan Menken and his
late partner Howard Ashman came up with to tell the story based on an old
Roger Corman comedy horror movie that played the drive-ins of the 1960’s.
Storyline: When he cuts his finger, a nerdish young man working in the
derelict “Skid Row Florist” discovers that a Venus Flytrap-like plant
responds to human blood. Soon the plant has grown to amazing proportions,
gathering publicity for the shop and bringing fame and fortune to the shop
owner and the young man. Soon he has to come up with more and more blood
(and entire bodies as well) as the plant gets bigger and begins to demand
“Feed Me!” He starts with the boyfriend of the girl who works in the shop --
a sadistic dentist. But then needs to find victims that don’t seem to be
quite such logical candidates for being turned into plant food.
Hunter Foster, who seemed to bring a nice touch of nerdiness to the hero’s
role in that other high-camp musical Urinetown, brings a strength to
the part of the weakling nerd that works quite well. Kerry Butler gets to
display a bit more depth to the role of the girlfriend than she did as
shallow Penny Pingleton in Hairspray which is still playing just
across the street. Rob Bartlett is very good as the flower shop owner
although he seems to be channeling Zero Mostel for most of the evening. (But,
if
you have to remind the audience of someone, Zero Mostel isn’t a bad one to
be like!) The greatest pleasures of the evening, however, come from Douglas
Sills as the demented dentist (and a host of other roles), and a trio of young
ladies making their Broadway debuts as the rock-‘n-roll equivalent of a
Greek chorus. Carla J. Hargrove, Trisha Jeffrey and DeQuina Moore open the
show with its first blast of good humored energy and return to provide a
booster shot every time it seems to be in danger of loosing a beat.
Of
course, it is the work of the puppet design team from The Jim Henson Company
headed by designer/”manipulator” Martin P. Robinson that gets the most
attention. As the plant gets bigger and bigger -- going from a small hand
held potted plant to a veritable jungle taking over the entire shop -- it
gets to be more and more fun. By the end, with an eye-popping effect that
springs out beyond the proscenium and over the heads of those in the front
of the orchestra section, the plant has overwhelmed not just the flower
shop, but the theater as well.
Scott Pask has created a world on stage that matches the combination of
whimsy and substance that marks the faux-earnestness of the script and
score. The key to the success of the score is the honest way it treats the
characters’ thoughts, hopes, fears, loves and hates. So, too, this
wrap-around visage of skid-row evolves as success comes to the flower shop.
It captures the underlying themes of poverty and hopelessness in the
undergrowth of society and the impact that sudden hope, respect and love.
But, just as with the score, the set is never anything less than inventive,
enjoyable fun.
Book
and Lyrics by Howard Ashman. Music by Alan Menken. Directed by Jerry Zaks.
Choreographed by Kathleen Marshall. Music direction by Henry Aronson.
Original vocal arrangements by Robert Billig. New arrangements by Michael
Kosarin. Orchestrations by Danny Troob. Design: Scott Pask (set)
William Ivey Long (costumes) Robert-Charles Vallance (wigs and hair)
Angelina Avallone (makeup) The Jim Henson Company and Martin P. Robinson
(puppets) Donald Holder (lights) T. Richard Fitzgerald (sound) Karen
Armstrong (stage manager.) Cast: Anthony Asbury, Rob Bartlett, Kerry Butler,
Hunter Foster, Carla J. Hargrove, Trisha Jeffrey, DeQuina Moore, Bill
Remington, Martin P. Robinson, Douglas Sills, Matt Vogel, Michael-Leon
Wooley. |
